After a three-game stint in the Little League World Series, Starkville Little League’s appearance in the Southwest Regional bracket concluded on Saturday in Waco, Texas, with a 1-0 loss to Texas West in the loser’s bracket.
All three contests, which were streamed on ESPN+, were decided by one run. Head coach Jase Abraham said he is proud of the way his team fought until the end against some of the best Little League teams in the nation.
“We went down there and played three great states with some of the best baseball players in not only the region, but the country,” Abraham said. “I don’t think you can get a true idea on TV of how good some of these kids are and how hard and talented a lot of these pitchers are. Our boys went down there and all three of those games could have went either way.
“I think the boys showed they belong and fought. It was a real special experience, not only on the field, but they also came home with the sportsmanship award, which was presented to them at the tournament. They represented Mississippi off the field as well with class and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Starkville, which earned the trip to Waco by beating Clinton 2-0 on July 17 for the Mississippi Little League state championship, opened bracket play against Louisiana on Thursday but fell in a tightly-contested 8-7 loss. Louisiana racked up seven doubles off 10 hits and exploded for five runs in the fifth inning to stun Starkville, which led 7-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning. But Abraham knew a six-run lead wasn’t going to keep Louisiana down.
“We knew in the dugout that 7-1 wasn’t enough. We knew they were going to continue to fight, and that’s what they did,” he said.
Louisiana, which scored one run in the first inning, scored one run to close out the third and added one more run in the fourth before stealing the lead in the fifth. Starkville got its scoring started by tacking on two runs in the second and notching five runs in the third for the early lead, but struggled to land hits the rest of the way.
Louisiana’s pitching staff limited the team to only four hits and six RBI, two of which were doubles by Grady Aldridge and Knox Couvillion. Chaney Morgan and William Gautreau also had a hit each for Starkville. Four pitchers saw action from the mound and combined to give up eight earned runs with eight strikeouts. Penn Patrick was dealt the loss as he pitched 1.2 innings and gave up three hits and one earned run while fanning three batters.
“You just have to give credit to Louisiana,” Abraham told The Dispatch. “It’s a hard one for us to swallow because we had them on the ropes, but they continued to hit. They earned their way back into it, and they’re a great team. Much respect to them.”
The loss sent Starkville to the loser’s bracket, where the team rebounded with a 2-1 win over Arkansas on Friday, despite being outhit, 5-3.
Arkansas’ Stover Napper smacked an RBI single in the second inning to give his team an early 1-0 lead that it held until the bottom of the fifth inning. Couvillion drilled a double to center field and Nolan Rodeheaver hit a single to bring in the game-winning runs. Patrick also had a hit off Arkansas pitcher Jack Speer, who Abraham said is probably the best pitcher his team faced. Speer pitched all five innings and struck out nine Starkville batters.
“Not only was his stuff really good, not only was he very talented, but he had the whole thing going on the mound,” Abraham said. “He was just in a groove, had the swagger about him and was dictating the pace. You can tell he had a lot of confidence up there in every pitch he was throwing.”
Starkville pitcher Easton Jackson had it going on, too. He pitched a complete game from the mound, holding Arkansas to just one earned run as he sent eight batters back to the dugout in helping Starkville advance to Saturday’s contest against Texas West.
“I can’t say enough about Easton Jackson. He gave us absolutely every opportunity to win,” Abraham said. “When we needed a big pitch he made it. He was unbelievable too, we were fortunate to be on the right side of that game. Hats off to Arkansas. You hate that anybody had to lose it. They played really well, too. We just got a couple of hits when we needed them.”
Starkville got another pitching gem in its following game against Texas West, this time from Tays LeGrand. He spent the entire game on the mound and held Texas to only four hits and one run as he struck out seven batters.
“He threw lights out,” Abraham said.
But one of those four hits became the game-winning hit by John Hays, who brought home Blaine Vardeman in the second inning for a 1-0 lead Starkville couldn’t overcome. The All-Stars managed to find some timely hits in their early games, but struggled to summon the magic once more.
Starkville struggled to bring the offensive support to capitalize on LeGrand’s pitching and was limited to four hits of their own by the Texas’ pitching tandem of Lincoln Bosson and Byron Smith, who combined for eight strikeouts. Couvillion, Patrick, Aldridge and George Pounds each had hits for Starkville.
“It was just tough for our guys to get going,” Abraham said. “I really credit it more to the pitching that we saw. It’s the best around. A lot of these kids that are throwing are from these big states with these big draw areas and big cities – I mean East Bank, being right from around New Orleans, a Texas team from right there in Waco and the other Texas team from Houston, Texas, and here we are in Starkville, Mississippi. They just had some really good arms.”
Texas West went on to fall to Oklahoma 12-9 on Sunday in the quarterfinals, and on the other side of the bracket, Louisiana took down Texas East 7-5 to advance to the championship game, which begins today at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
Texas East played Oklahoma Monday in the semifinals with the winner taking on Louisiana for the right to head to the Little League World series, which begins on Aug. 13 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve had some great teams before us that have gone to Waco and made some noise and done some good and represented very well for Starkville,” he said. “We wish that we stayed and (were) playing again, but we’re proud that we went there and were able to keep some of the respect of some of the other states there and play some competitive baseball.”
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